I have a 2006 HCH which I bought in March. It now has only 600 kms or 360 miles on it. (I'm in Canada)

I have noticed on many occassions that the fuel consumption indicator is maxed out while the car is running at less than 1500rpms. It usually happens when I begin to accellerate easily out of my level driveway. I don't gun the engine, hence the tac reading. The consumption indicator will subside after about 5-10 seconds even though tac doesn't change much.

How exactly is the consumption calculated? What could explain the movement of the indicator in the scenario I described?

Thanks in advance to the many great well-informed posters here!

Regards,

Bill McMullin
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Yes, I get a similar thing happening if I am stopped and I take my foot off the brake. As the car creeps forward (I'm not touching the accelerator), the indicator maxes out too.

In my view, this is not an accurate and can be ignored. (I hope!)

I would not worry much about that. It is a well known recalibration phenomenon and has been frequently documented. This happens typically happens when the vehicle is cold and at times when crusing at speeds between 30 - 43 mph (48km/h - 68km/h).

The best thing to do is to ignore it. If you do and you keep the foot on the pedal as you were, you'll likely notice that when the routine completes, the iFCD reading will come down to the espected value range.

Despite the iFCD rather good accuracy, this behavior will not affect your final fuel economy at all.

Cheers;

MSantos